Hughes

We review an adjudication of contempt for an attorney’s

refusal to obey a trial court’s order to proceed to trial.

Petitioner, a deputy public defender, had been assigned to two cases on the trial calendar of Monday, July 2, 1979—the “Body” case and the “Holloway” case, both of which were complex, involving charges of assault with intent to commit murder. On the preceding Friday, he attempted to obtain an indication from the master calendar department as to the order in which the cases would go to trial, and was told that all else being equal the “older” of the two, i.e. the “Holloway” case, would go first. Petitioner therefore “took a chance” and prepared the “Holloway” case over the weekend. On Monday, July 2, the district attorney’s office insisted on proceeding at once with the “Body” case for which it had transported a medically incapacitated witness from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Petitioner sought a continuance but his motion was denied by the judge presiding over the master calendar.

In the trial department petitioner renewed his motion for a continuance. Mr. Brown, the San Francisco Public Defender, and Mr. Lefcourt, petitioner’s supervisor, assured the…